Nigel Farage has blasted Kemi Badenoch as incompetent and lazy as he slammed the Tory Party as being packed full of “boring old bastards”. The Reform UK leader insisted there would be no right wing electoral pact between the two parties as he vowed his party were aiming to replace the Conservatives.
Mr Farage, who has repeatedly clashed with the Tory leader, said the upcoming May local elections are a “big moment” for his party. Speaking to journalists at a Westminster lunch, the Brexiteer took aim at the Tory party for having “no ideas”.
Kemi Badenoch has been in the firing line (Image: Getty)
He mocked the Tories, who are: “Led by Kemi, who often works very hard in the afternoon for a few hours.
“Won’t do a single broadcast before 11am. A leader who doesn’t know what hard work is. And leading a party – I have never met a stuck up, more arrogant, out of touch group of people than at least half half of the Conservatives.
“Stuffy, boring old b*****ds. And they should all be in the Lib Dems anyway. They haven’t got a single conservative idea among them. Even if Kemi was competent, there’s nothing she can do because they are split down the middle.”
Mr Farage and Mrs Badenoch have repeatedly clashed over their party’s membership numbers.
The Reform UK leader, also turned his guns on senior Tory Robert Jenrick, who challenged Ms Badencoch for the Tory leadership.
“Jenrick of course, who’s been on the road to Damascus – ‘Generic’, who has become this great right wing figure. The Nigel Farage impersonator.
“I met him in the lobby the other day and I said, ‘listen mate I’ll give you some advice’ but I’m not sure he’s going to listen, they’re split down the middle and they stand for nothing.
“They might have been around for 194 years but I personally believe – their poll ratings are around 20% – after May 1 they will fall off the cliff.”
A Conservative source said: “It must have been a relief for Nigel to take time off from throwing around accusations at MPs in his own party. As ever, the Nigel Farage ego show has no vision for Britain, no positive agenda to improve people’s lives, just vapid insults with no basis in reality.”
In a wide-ranging speech he also said that Net Zero was likely to be a major battleground at the 2029 general election in the same way as Brexit dominated in 2019.
Donald Trump (Image: Getty)
And Mr Farage said men used to be at the top of boardrooms because “the country was white men”, as he railed against diversity and inclusion policies in workplaces.
The Reform UK leader praised Mr Trump’s US administration for scrapping a drive aimed at improving equality in American workplaces, collectively known as diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies.
He said it was “just the way it is” that his party is more likely to appeal to men than to women, as polling has suggested.
He claimed society was trying to “feminise” young men, which had led to them seeing appeal in figures like self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who the Reform leader insisted he was “not a fan” of.
“I think a woke virus has gone through corporate America and corporate Britain”, the Reform leader said, when he was asked about his settlement with NatWest following a two-year row over debanking.
He added: “We have firms like BP pretending they’re all about renewable energy rather than producing oil, and the lunacies of DEI policy, of employing people on the basis of their colour, or their chosen sexuality – I’d rather not know myself – is coming to an end.
“We’re seeing the tide turning. You know, when even Mark Zuckerberg announces that he’s axing the DEI department at Meta, you know that a big change is coming, and we’re moving that more towards a system based on meritocracy than based on identity.”
